Sunday 18 December 2011

The School Play 2011

02-12-11

The time has come again for this year's school play. We filed into the gymnasium expecting five star performances and expert storytelling. I don't know why we always expect this but we do. After all, they've been rehearsing for weeks.

The story was "The Snowman at Sunset." Near as I can tell the story goes like this. It snowed one day and all the children made snowmen, which then melted. Then it snowed again but this time there was only enough snow to make one snowman and all the children fought over who would make it. Then they decided to work together and made a snowman. Then there was a spontaneous nativity scene. All the kids that hadn't done anything yet piled on stage in something resembling the nativity. I guess even a CoE school can't get away with much Christianity around christmas.

Jack was one of the snowflakes, he and five others danced around on stage for a few minutes until they got bored at which point they just stood and waited for the music to end. Jack made it about half way. After that the kids stood up one by one and fired off their lines at varying volumes and levels of commitment. There were more songs then more lines then more songs.

The highlight for me was the snowmen melting song. It's a rather cheery little song along the lines of '10 Little Monkeys' where the 10 snowmen get blasted one by one by the sun. When they got to 6 snowmen I was happy to discover that the snowmen we being shot and their carcasses were being carried off two at a time. It otherwise would have made for a very long song.

I also liked The Angry Song. It's line after line about just how angry the song is. It's a pretty cross song.

After his dancing Jack took his seat and pretended to sing for the remaining twenty minutes. He was sat right behind two of his buddies. One of these boy's father made the mistake, about halfway through the first song, of saying he couldn't hear him. So naturally this boy shouted the songs at the top of his voice for the remainder of the performance. This naturally sparked a competition with the boy next to him... We're lucky we didn't lose one of them, they were looking pretty red in the face and bleary eyes by the end.

Jack had a good time. He wasn't happy with his snowflake part though only because people kept saying what a beautiful snowflake he was, beautiful is what girls are... He also wasn't very happy with having bare feet for the duration of the play. Too bad he has to do it all again Monday for the grandparents.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Precognative Movie Watching.

Today is Friday so when I picked Jack up from school I told him that we were going to watch a movie when we got home.
What movie?
I was thinking transformers 3 since neither of us has seen it.
Yes, yes I've been waiting to see that movie. I love that movie, it's my favorite movie.
I'd quite like to see it too.
I already know how the beginning goes. I haven't seen the movie but I know how the beginning bit goes.
You do?
Yeah, and the end.
How does the beginning go then?
Silver letters. All the transformer movies start with silver letters.
You're probably right. So how does the end go?
The good guy beats up all of the baddies. All of the baddies are beaten and then the movie ends.

So there you have it. For those of you that may not have seen the film I hope that we've not spoiled it for you.

Sunday 4 December 2011

The Secret is Bravery

Jack goes to swimming lessons once a week.

I've expressed before how much Jack dislikes water in his face. At first he hated the swimming lessons. Each week they followed the same routine, they'd start off by having a splash fight. Jack doesn't like it much but he participates whilst keeping his head turned and eyes clamped shut. They then climb in the water and splash again with their feet. Jack likes this better but he's still not a fan. After that they teach him different strokes and help him practice swimming from side to side.

They all start with four foam floaters and as they progress they lose floaters. One time one of the instructors reduced his floaters mid swim. Jack still insists that he nearly drowned.

Everything goes well until the last five minutes when all the kids have to jump in. Not all of the kids like this and Jack hates it, he usually refuses. The instructors are gentle and patient, but they always manage to talk him down. But still he'll usually be crying and demanding to be taken home by the end, vowing never to swim again.

Today the swimming group was unusually scarce, the class of ten turned out a meager four. With three instructors it made for a productive lesson. At the end I watched as Jack plunged his face into the water without hesitation. I made sure to give him a cheer when he looked up.

One minute later I watched with pride as he jumped into the pool without his floaters and came out... well, not crying.

As we returned to the car Jack regaled his triumph. I just jumped in. I was really brave and jumped in. And I put my face in the water for five minutes. I found the secret.
And what's the secret.
It's to be brave. All this time and you just have to be brave and jump in.

There are only 2 things left now that still scare him, vampires and zombies. And of course a vampire-zombie, with the body of a zombie and the head of a vampire... and ghost arms.